Gold has been surging, crossing the $3,000 mark for the first time recently, and experts are predicting further increases in prices.

Jeffrey Gundlach, CEO of DoubleLine Capital, renowned in investing circles as the “Bond King,” is optimistic about gold, suggesting that prices could rise as high as $4,000.

During a macroeconomic presentation titled “Not in My Neighborhood”, Gundlach discussed gold’s strong performance amidst a backdrop of increased demand from central banks.

“I think gold will make it to $4,000. I’m not sure that’ll happen this year, but I feel like that’s the measured move anticipated by the long consolidation at around $1,800 on gold.”

Gold-backed cryptocurrencies are also outpacing the wider crypto market. With tokens like PAXG and XAUT seeing year-to-date gains of about 14%, they have overshadowed Bitcoin, which has dropped 11.4% during the same timeframe.

Central banks worldwide are reversing a trend of declining gold reserves, and as per IMF data shared by Gundlach, global gold holdings have risen from roughly 34 billion Special Drawing Rights (SDR) in 2010 to 40.9 billion SDR, levels not seen since the late 1970s.

Special Drawing Rights are a reserve asset created by the IMF and are based on a basket of currencies.